Software Licensing

How do you protect your server scripts

[rycrostud]

Hi,

I'm doing more and more server side stuff and it's getting to the point where the applications I've developed can be pretty much sold to my customers "out of the box".

I was just wondering how you lot approached licensing your server scripts in terms of legal copyright notices, software keys etc.

Are there any handy sites out there that cover this kind of thing?

[PsychoTekk]

hi rycrostud,
i have some scripts online, too. they are not that great so i dont bother
about copyright, however, i have seen lots of scripts that just contain
a copyright note in the header.
if you want to keep ppl from viewing your source you can also compile perl
scripts to executes, but those files are pretty large because they contain all runtime dll's etc.
if you are talking about java-/vbscripts then you can encode them via base64
(i think it's some microsoft application)
but of course they are easily to decode again...
i think the bigger a script is the more complicated it is, so most ppl won't understand how to use your ideas, and for the ones that would understand i think
most of them do not need to take other ppl ideas
my conclusion is that putting a little note into the script is just fine. :)
<added>
these sites might help you (i did not really read them)
[temple.edu...]
[ats.ucla.edu...]
</added>

[Lisa_Lia]

What OS are you talking about?

[william_dw]

I work in ASP,
and although it's a total pain if the host dosent support it, compiling the code to a component works great:
It speeds everything up
You can actually use binary file access (yes it's important when you're dealing with custom file format's designed in the early stoneage).
And most importantly the code is in a form that cant be accessed. (Ok you could disassemble the PE and attempt to reconstruct everything, but it's pretty impossible).

As I said, the host needs to support it, but usually they're willing to if you find the right company.

The other option is to host everything on your own servers for the client & map a virtual directory to a directory the client dosent have ftp access permissions to.

Just my $0.02